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■ Invacare's Matt
Monaghan expects
financial results to stabilize
in the second half of 2017.
See story below.
Mediware snags CEO from UnitedHealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Merits Health launches Pilot division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Geriatric Medical completes solar project . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Q&A: ClearPrice's Pat Sullivan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Vendors
28 hme news / october 2017 / www.hmenews.com
Briefs
Permobil expands in n Z
LEBANON, Tenn. – Permobil has acquired
Auckland, New Zealand-based Durable
Medical Equipment, Ltd., the largest com-
plex rehab company in the country, it has
announced. The deal allows Permobil to
"increase access to care" in New Zealand.
"Permobil is dedicated to building a lead-
ing healthcare company by providing ad-
vanced rehabilitation technology driving
growth through education and outcomes,
delivered with passion and first-class
service," said Larry Jackson, president
of Permobil Business Region Americas.
"DME shares this vision, which makes
this a strong match. We are excited to
welcome DME's employees to the Per-
mobil family to further increase access to
care in New Zealand." DME was started
in 1999. Permobil, which was founded in
1967, currently has 1,500 employees in 17
countries. It is owned by Patricia Indus-
tries, a subsidiary of Investor AB, a Swed-
ish investment firm.
Drive launches
online community
SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif. – Inspired by Drive
has launched "Live Inspired," an online
community for special needs families. It
features a weekly guest blog and other
resources, and offers families a place to
connect. "Our commitment to special
needs families goes beyond our prod-
ucts," said Matt Lawrence, vice president
and general manager. "The Live Inspired
community is an extension of our mis-
sion to enhance the quality of life of the
people we touch and our commitment to
families."
Pedors launches
footwear program
ROSWELL, Ga. – Pedors Shoes has intro-
duced a Geriatric Footwear Program that
provides PTs and OTs with a discount
code they can share with their patients
to help offset the cost of therapeutic
footwear. Pedors believes the program
can help to address Medicare's broken
audit system and the emergence of e-
commerce, which it says have driven or-
thotics fitters and pedorthists out of the
market and made it harder for patients to
find footwear.
e Z-Access makes
improvements
ALGONA, Wash. – EZ-Access has updated
its website, www.ezaccess.com, and
strengthened its sales team. The com-
pany, which makes accessibility solu-
tions, worked with VGM Forbin to update
its website to improve the experience for
current and prospective customers who
are searching for products. The website,
which was built to perform well on all de-
vices, features products segmented by
categories, a dealer contact form, a live
chat and stronger security. EZ-Access
has also added Scott Haisch as West Re-
gion Business Manager.
CLEARPRICE STRIVES FOR CLARITY
Invacare remains conservative
Here comes the sun
Woburn, Mass.-based Geriatric Medical & Surgical Supply, a
distributor of medical supplies, has completed construction
on a 585kW solar project on the roof of its facility in Woburn,
Mass. The company says it is among the largest roof-mount-
ed solar projects completed in the state. The solar project
consists of about 1,200 high efficiency solar panels and
540 inverters that will allow Geriatric Medical to produce in
excess of 100% of its energy needs and supply the remain-
der to other environmentally conscious businesses. Based on
projections from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
the project will save about 25 million pounds of greenhouse
gas by 2040, the company says.
Merits builds
access division
By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor
ELYRIA, Ohio – Despite the excite-
ment surrounding its recent
clearance by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration to resume
full operations at its Taylor Street
manufacturing facility, Invacare
CEO Matt Monaghan told inves-
tors Aug. 8 that the company is
By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor
CAPE CORAL, Fla. – The stairlift mar-
ket, one dominated by a few long-
time players, now has a new play-
er: Merits Health Products.
Merits Health has launched a
home access division called Pilot
and its first product offering is a
straight stairlift. It has been man-
ufacturing a similar product for
other companies for 19 years.
"So we're not new to this
market or this product line,"
said Chris Blackmore, national
director of business and product
development for Merits Health.
"But at this point, we thought we
should have our own division."
Merits Health will debut Pilot
and the stairlift at Medtrade in
October.
Pilot plans to leverage Merits
Health's existing customer base:
The company is best known for
its standard manual and power
wheelchairs, and a complex
rehab division called Avid Rehab,
By Liz Beau L ieu, e ditor
P
AT S U ll I v A n sees no need
for re-billing vendors in
the workers' compensation
market for HME. To prove it, he
has launched a company called
ClearPrice n etworks to give pro-
viders and payers a more direct
way to bill and pay. Here's what
Sullivan, whose career spans
everything from being a claims
adjuster to founding a PPO, had
to say about why the workers'
comp market for HME is growing
and how ClearPrice n etworks is
'We want to end the year sequentially flat,' says Matt Monaghan, in wake of news of lifted consent decree
still trying to "report some con-
servatism."
Monaghan expects Invacare's
financial results to stabilize in the
second half of 2017, but there are
a number of factors that are tem-
pering a rebound right out of the
gate.
"I want to end the year sequen-
tially flat, quarter-over-quarter,
so Q4 over Q3," said Monaghan,
also chairman and president. "So
we'll see how close we can get on
Q3 over Q2."
For the six months ended
June 30, Invacare reported net
sales of $465.2 million this year
vs. $532.6 million last year. It
reported a net loss of $40.3 mil-
lion vs. $20.2 million.
Monaghan acknowledged that
it's "hard to predict" how quickly
providers will "come back" to its
line of complex rehab products,
which were most affected by the
consent decree that limited man-
ufacturing from its Taylor Street
facility for almost five years.
"It's a little hard for us, just 10
Q&A: P A t Sulliv A n on worker S ' com P
helping to make it more lucrative
for providers.
HME N E ws: Why do you see re-
billing vendors as an obstacle to
the workers' comp market?
Pat Sullivan: This is one of the
few areas where you don't bill
the payer directly and you don't
get paid directly. These re-bill-
ing vendors essentially pay the
DME provider about two-thirds
of what they bill the payer and
they take 60 to 120 days to do
it. In a world where I can Square
Cash you money instantaneously,
that's unacceptable.
HME: But you're still a middleman
of sorts, aren't you?
Sullivan: When
I think of a
middleman, I
think of some-
one who is
involved in
the financial
t r a n s a c t i o n
and who takes
a piece of it
along the way. Obviously, we
need to get paid for our services,
but we don't touch the money
between payer and provider.
Pat Sullivan
I N v A C A R E E A r n i n G S S E E n E x T PA G E
m E R I T S P i l o T S E E n E x T PA G E
Q & A : P AT S U l l i v A n S E E n E x T PA G E
We've created an electronic world
that allows them to do business
together. What we get paid is a
fraction of what the re-billing
vendors are taking.
HME: What do you get paid and
by whom?
Sullivan: There's no fee to the pro-
vider. The payer pays us a per-
centage of their savings based on
the difference between the state
fee schedule allowed amount and
the ClearPrice n etworks price.
That's the same model that has
been used in the PPO industry
launched in 2015.
"Those companies that we're
offering a stairlift to, we could
already be providing them a
power wheelchair or a complex
rehab chair," Blackmore said.
"We're offering such a complete
line now—no
other man-
u f a c t u r e r
i s o f f e r i n g
all three of
these product
lines. We can
o f f e r s o m e
savings."
Merits Health has brought
onboard a husband-and-wife
team, Andy and l isa Scothern,
to head up Pilot. Previously,
they worked at Handicare, which
manufactures stairlifts, as well as
safe patient handling and bath-
room safety products. Blackmore
also worked at Handicare before
helping Merits Health launch
Avid Rehab.
Pilot and
its straight
stairlift will
make its
debut at
Medtrade